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According to Remo in Shulchan Aruch Yorah De'ah 89:2 as referred in this OU article, people should wait 6 hours after eating hard cheese.

Let's say someone eats a type of cheese that is partially hard cheese & partially non hard cheese. (The mix was intentionally done, incidentally, for explicit purpose of selling it this way. Let's say the cheese is called "Parmerican" - parmesan (aged) + processed "American") Does the person need to wait 6 hours because he ate some hard cheese? How much hard cheese would require waiting 6 hours - does it follow the same concept of "batul beshishim" (less than 1/60) as with milk accidentally mixed into a meat dish (i.e., less than 1/60 is nullified)? Is the amount based on majority (more than 50% hard cheese in the mix means 6 hours) or is there some other measurement in this mix that requires a 6-hour wait?

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  • Is this mixture melted together, or is it just a dry mix with distinct pieces?
    – Yishai
    Jun 1, 2015 at 2:09
  • @Yishai I can see why you're asking about melting, b/c I noticed in the OU article some opinion stating that melting destroys the "hard cheese" properties. Let's assume for this case, that the cheese was mixed as a solid. However, as far as recognition, you can make this part of your answer. Would there be differences between one hunk of cheese made from both or if it was a pile of grated cheese from both Parmesan and soft cheese mixed together so you can see which was which b/c of each cheese's distinctive color?
    – DanF
    Jun 1, 2015 at 2:33
  • @Yishai if it's melted, then it's no longer considered "hard." You no longer need to wait until it is re-hardened. Not exactly sure of a source, but it was brought up in this exact context during a conversation I had not too long ago...
    – Isaac Kotlicky
    Jun 1, 2015 at 4:02
  • @IsaacKotlicky IIRC, the OU article that I placed in my question mentions that there is an opinion stating that melting nullifies the "aged" properties. See also, my comment / response to Yishai. For simplicity, assume that the cheese "mix" is not melted.
    – DanF
    Jun 1, 2015 at 14:47
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    @sam for example, the CRC and OU hold of it theyeshivaworld.com/news/kashrus-corner/185010/… oukosher.org/blog/consumer-kosher/… I don't really understand why one would want to be machmir on such a practice which is already built on chumra on top of chumra on a minhag.
    – Double AA ♦
    Jul 31, 2015 at 2:28

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The concept of bitul b'shishim should certainly apply here. The idea is that any amount less than 1/60th of the volume of the mixture is undetectable (source), and therefore considered to not exist.

Bitul b'rov (nullification by 50%) would not apply in this case as that only works for identical foods. For example, if two non-kosher chicken legs are accidentally mixed up with 3 identical kosher chicken legs, all 5 legs are permitted (do not do this in practice without consulting your rabbi). This would not apply in this case since the hard cheese is clearly not identical to the soft cheese.

Therefore, any cheese mixture that is less than 1/60 hard cheese should not require waiting while any cheese mixture that is more than 1/60 hard cheese would require waiting.

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    I'm not yet convinced. First, the rules of 1/60 apply to meat / milk & kosher / non-kosher. I'm not sure if it applies here, as they are the same item - cheese - just different types of cheese. Second, even if you would follow the 1/60 rule, according to the article there are 2 areas where it is NOT nullified - when intentionally mixed (I guess I was unclear about this, as I didn't consider it an issue; I'll edit), and Davar Shebeminyan. Aged & non-aged cheese are usually sold separately. The mix is unusual.
    – DanF
    May 31, 2015 at 23:01
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    Bittul by hetter bihetter?
    – user6591
    May 31, 2015 at 23:01
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    @user6591 Why not? My understanding is that the reason we purchase milk before pesach is because any chametz that is in the milk is batel b'shishim while it is still permitted.
    – Daniel
    May 31, 2015 at 23:03
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    @DanF If it's the same item, al achat kamah v'kamah bitul b'shishim should work. Nonetheless, I really don't think you could say it's the same thing. As for your cases where nullification doesn't work: the intentional mixture is called "אין מבטלין איסור לכתחילה" (as mentioned in the article). That is a separate isur to intentionally rely on bitul b'shishim l'chatchila to nullify something asur. There is nothing asur about mixing kinds of cheese. As for the second case, I think you have misunderstood what a דבר שבמנין is. When the article says, (to be continued)
    – Daniel
    Jun 1, 2015 at 0:17
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    (continued) "If something is usually sold individually, it does not become batel," that does not refer to things that are not sold together with other things. It's referring to things that are sold in whole number increments of the thing (in other words, you go to the store and buy 4 pomegranates, not 1 pound of pomegranates [even though the price might be by the pound, you would never divide up a pomegranate to get to exactly one pound]). The fact that hard cheese and soft cheese are sold separately is irrelevant. Milk and beef are also sold separately and we know bitul works by them.
    – Daniel
    Jun 1, 2015 at 0:20

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